Currencies in Complex Selling Situations
In some customer situations, there may be levels of complexity that provide greater opportunities to offer currencies. If you look at the transaction from the customer’s perspective, you might ask:
How can we make it easier to do business with us?
How does this customer receive our goods and services?
What do they do with these after they receive them?
How do they distribute and sell to their customers?
In thinking through these questions, Tom Reilly, in his Value-Added Selling[4] series describes at least six types of potential currencies:
Purchasing: What can I do to help my customer purchase and pay for my products or services? An electronics firm, for example, takes credit cards (versus invoice and purchase order numbers) from customers to expedite delivery. Also, some firms use blanket purchase orders.
Inbound logistics: What can I do to help my customer receive my products or services? A parts manufacturer participates in the customer’s just-in-time inventory program by establishing a demand-based ordering system.
Operations: What can I do to help my customer use my products or services? A software supplier provides on-site training during the installation and implementation phase.
Outbound logistics: What can I do to help my customer distribute my products or services? A healthcare products distributor provides barcode labels to conform to the drugstore chain’s inventory and distribution system.
Marketing and sales: What can I do to help my customer market and sell using the strengths of my product’s features and benefits? A battery supplier provides point-of-purchase displays for stores and coupon flyers for local newspapers.
Service: What can I do to help my customer maintain and service their equipment? A construction equipment dealer offers “sacrificial customer service,” providing a customer parts or a service technician 24/7, every day of the year. It could also include service reminders and product upgrades.
For each of these six areas, think through your customer’s business by asking:
How does this customer incur or measure costs?
How does this customer measure profit or gain?
At the end of this chapter, an Inventory of Value-Added Currencies (see Practical Application) helps you list your offerings by revenue enhancement or cost reduction. In addition, think about your business and how you serve customers. What are some of the special currencies that you could offer to benefit both you and the customer when doing business together?